Why is there so much stigma attached to being unattached, especially for women? While the government no longer refers to them as “spinsters”, the tropes around the lone woman persists.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of women who are not living in a couple and who have never married is rising in every age range under 70. Between 2002 and 2018, the percentage of those in their 40s who have never been married doubled.
To counter the old stereotypes, there’s been a wave of women rewriting the narrative, countering the idea that you’re incomplete until you find your “other half” and embracing the wholeness of a single life.
Emma John, author of Self Contained: Scenes from a Single Life, reflects on her life as an unmarried woman in her 40s. She tells Nosheen Iqbal about ducking awkward questions around her relationship status, and what being single has taught her about love.
Annie Lord, the dating columnist for British Vogue, discusses the perils of online dating in your 20s and how cooking for herself helped heal a heartbreak. Journalist Poorna Bell tells Nosheen about how she learnt to navigate life after her partner passed away. Lord and Bell have contributed essays to the book Unattached: Thirty Essays On Singlehood by Angelica Malin.
Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
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